Bristol-based None60's purpose seems to renew the important role of that vibrant city in the field of contemporary music. Having been the hometown of Portishead, Massive Attack, Smith'n'Mighty as well as the base of many great d'n'b producers and clubs, Bristol can undoubtedly become the lighthouse of bass-driven music again thanks to a number of newcomers and veterans that are shaking the grounds and the catalogues of labels like None60. This time it was the turn of the illegitimate sons of well-known British paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse, as Uk producers Andy Hobbs aka Hobzee and Dan Blishen aka Zyon Base defined themselves. Even if they were born respectively in Kent and Manchester, Bristol is the city where they mainly operates by means of their imprint None60, whose main mission, in their own words, is the removal of "all limitations of genre, tempo and convention". In order to give an idea of what you're going to listen before you check the two tracks by your eardrums, I could approximately define their sound as a sort of chillstep (I violate the first amendment), running at half tempo (I violated the second amendment as well), but before someone puts a jinx or an arrest warrant to me, I can certify that both tracks are really unconventional: HOF voice mastefully oozes honey on the mellow half tempo of "Lone", while that honey turns into psychedelic resin on the following "The Deku Tree" - I could guess they are fans of "The Legend of Zelda"! -. Silent Dust confirms to be one of the most interesting acts in the general renaissance of bass music at the moment!

Available the next July on vinyl, CD and digital, "Noh" is the first release for Florestano's personal label Kowloon. Florestano is the producer and multi-instrumentalist Leonardo Salvaro. Originally from near Verona, Italy, he spent the last five years traveling nomadically through Asia, Europe and South America. The experience of finding himself alone for a lot of time, influenced his creative process and allowed him to focus on the emotions he wanted to express with his music. The album title "Noh", is underlining the fact that Leonardo wanted the listener to be freed from any influence as happen on the noh theatre, where emotions are primarily conveyed by stylized conventional gestures while the iconic masks represent the roles such as ghosts, women, children, and old people (thanks Wikipedia for that). Musically, the eight tracks of the album remember me a mix of CN, Dmx Krew and Aphex Twin with a pinch of German techno. Rhythm is the main element on the writing and often breakbeat textures are mixed with melodic synth patterns and cutups which intrigue the listener and help giving a melodic structure to the tracks which, by the way, are instrumentals. Florestano succeeds into stuffing the tracks with enough interesting elements which are capable to keep the listener cool about what he's listening to. Also, he's great at breaking the mechanic and apparently cold complex rhythm patterns with melodic bridges which help creating an intriguing atmosphere. Follow Florestano's website for further news!

An interesting matching between minimal techno and mathematical functions - I wonder how some reviewers are still reluctant to accept the association of the adjective "intelligent" to the label "dance music" - came on Clang's catalogue from Danish producer, programmer and sonologist Lars Graugaard, whose passion for David Temperley's research into probabilistic melody generation (if you don't chew such a matter, have a look to his essay "Music and Probability" to have an idea what he means), musical rule systems and temporal morphing could let you think he's deepening mathematical knowledge on some digital sequencer or playing music by means of Matlab or Lisp while performing in real time - neither pre-packed phrases, grouping nor overdubs - on his laptop. The funny way by which he inoculates smartly crafted sounds and computational melodies stand out over the four track of this digital release. I particularly enjoyed the title-track "Americanino", whose twisting micro-techno groove sounds like trawling for resounding electrons in the thought of mad scientist, and "Drawn and Quartered", where a sort of embryonic break got blended into a crude "fruity loop"-like movement and free jazz-like synth-piano jam, but both "Later That Night" and "Decay and Slip" are nice specimen of the above-mentioned matching. Have a listen!

Glacial23 is Sam Harmon from Cleveland, Ohio, an electronic music producer, instrument builder, noise explorer, etc., and this self-titled 12" is his vinyl debut, although I think he's previously done other things with Glacial23. The record is five tracks - two on the A side, three on the B side. The digital download gives you an extra three tracks, but if you like what I'm going to tell you about the record, you'd better not hesitate because the website says there are only five copies left. This is an entirely instrumental work. The album starts off with "...the last evenings of summer", a mid-tempo number with a repetetive bass line and fairly straightforward drum machine. Light filtered synth chords permeate the mix that seem more for atmosphere than melody. Burbling sequenced synth is also in evidence. It's a Kraftwerkian type of minimalism employed throughout. Very Euro. "Warning Star" picks up the pace a bit and has a typical German techno vibe, with claps in the forefront. Overtly sequenced minimal synth and a strong beat, a club-worthy track. "White Cloud" keeps up the beat and employs lighter echoed sequenced synth, then a complementary lower mid-range sequence. Snare-play appears occasionally, and so far, this is the breakout from minimalism in terms of texture; it's still pretty minimal as far as form goes. "Cheval de Frise" starts with kicks, hats and claps, then sequenced filtered bass. Synth chords provide a hint of melody, and other synth sounds arise to fill in the gaps. For some reason I'm reminded of Marty Rev's (1/2 of Suicide) solo recordings, although it's been quite a while since I've heard them. Last track on the record, "Laminar Techno" is Acid Techno, pure and simple, and that's all there is to say about that. For those more interested in the digital download, I might as well cover those tracks. "Down" keeps true to the style and form of what came before but is a bit more eerie. "taperunner" is a little under 2 minutes of thick, low, growling filtered synth, no beat, no rhythm. "Down (alternate AB-Version)" is a remix of the previous "Down" obviously, sounding even more ominous than the original, and slower, and consequently longer too. It's somewhat noisy, and I found the claps really annoying this go-round, mixed up, while the spooky synth was submerged. In my estimation, the extra track were a bit superfluous. If you like minimal Acid Techno or Acid House, go for the vinyl. Personally, I prefer music that has a bit more substance, and to me, this sounds just so 25 years ago, but for those of you feeling nostalgic, you might want to check this out.